Vrba79's world of NPR.

vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297
edited October 2021 in Art Studio

A bunch of other people have their own little thread, so why not?

I primarily work with Genesis 1. Its such a great figure base for people who love making toony/anime stuff!

My first piece for this thread is WIP revision of my one of my comic strip's protagonist, Joy Kinsey.

With darker skin tones, you have to really fidget with the settings to get everything to look right.

 

Post edited by vrba79 on
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  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    The addition of a second, soft intensity light seems to have solved the sheen problem I was having. Debating on whether or not to use geo-shell outlines. Might try that after I get how she's supposed to look tamped down.

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Improved the lighting rig and went with the Geoshelled toon outlines. Made the fake specular highlights via the cornea more transparent.

    Now this cutie is ready for prime time.

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Some textures look weird and washed out with the shader, but I have a fix: Increasing the color divisions and blend amount of that individual material.

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    El Punchador, my webcomic's "Superhero".

    He only stops one very specific brand of crime. To quote the "Fightin' 'Round the World!" song: It's a problem noone understands.

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Here's a work in progress. I'm trying to apply my DZDefault Toon know-how to Genesis 8. I've solved one of my biggest problems with G8 by accident.

    I forgot to cover the eye materials to 3DL. In doing so the specular highlight on the eye is intacted. I just removed the texture for the Sclera, and it looks just fine!

    Onward...

     

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    G8 is proving to be tameable for this kind of render.

  • Hi,

    I've been told to learn from you all i can as you seem the person who knows best on "how to" turn my library of characters and scenes into cartoon characters as shown above... i dont know if you do any post work with photoshop etc..

    Either way i bought all that i think i should have to learn and hoping you can guide me with some proper tutorials or at least explain how you come about with such awesome results with your cartoon art.

    Thanks and seeking wisdom :)

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297
    edited October 2021

    elidaman198 said:

    Hi,

    I've been told to learn from you all i can as you seem the person who knows best on "how to" turn my library of characters and scenes into cartoon characters as shown above... i dont know if you do any post work with photoshop etc..

    Either way i bought all that i think i should have to learn and hoping you can guide me with some proper tutorials or at least explain how you come about with such awesome results with your cartoon art.

    Thanks and seeking wisdom :)
     

    This is a bit of a ramble, as I'm in the middle of like three things, but here goes.

    I use DzDefault's Matte Toon Shader, which can be found in your Shader Presets folder in "Content Library". If you're doing a G8 figure, I reccomend not applying it to the eye materials, and instead just disable the diffuse map of the sclera.

    After applying the shader, keep the opacity maps, and whatever diffuse maps you need, but disable the rest, especially bump maps. Bump maps and toon rendering go together like toothpaste and orange juice.

    Next you change the blend amount to anything from 50 to 75, depending on whether you want it looking more cell shaded or air brushed. Some clothing options have difficult textures that require it being set to 100, to get them to look right.

    Whether you use the outline threshold and at what intensity is up to you. 2.0 is usual adequate, unless your doing surfaces like tabletops or floors, then set it to 0. There are other methods to get toon outlines, but since you sound like a beginner, stick to this for now.

    For character skin, I reccomend setting the ambient ot 25% and then choosing a color that helps the skin tone pop. You'll have to experiment.

    Next comes lighting. For this I reccomend one to two lights, One distance light for sure, with a spotlight to accent it if you so wish. You're gonna have to experiment.

    For G8 Characters I set both of these to Diffuse only, and then create a third light that does specular only, specifically for the eye hightlights. You can change this one's orientation to get the eye relfections at the precise angles you want. Or you can just paint them onto the eyes in post.

    For ease of use's sake, I suggest making a Camera and parenting these lights to it.

    For this particular kind of render, I do a two-step postwork in Photoshop. These are the settings.

     

     

    Post edited by vrba79 on
  • Thank you appreciated let me spin this in my head and hope i execute right... aside from that know any good tutorials that would guiode me right in doing what you explained?

     

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Honestly there's several people in the forums with techniques. Threads like this one  have some pretty good examples of people using various rendering/postwork combos. Most of them are pretty open to sharing how they achieve a specific look.

  • i appreciate you being open to it and will play around with it and readup some more as i educate myself to it

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Yeah getting in there and playing around with the software yourself is gonna do you more good than a tutorial alone. Some stuff is going to work better for your personal workflow than others.

  • vrba79 said:

    Yeah getting in there and playing around with the software yourself is gonna do you more good than a tutorial alone. Some stuff is going to work better for your personal workflow than others.

    understood and ty

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Unfinished WIP of Joy in G8. Still have some shaping and shading tweaks to do before she's completely ready.

    Apparently you can convert G2 character morphs to G8 with a utility for sale in the shop! So if you've got Aiko and Hiro 4 legacy morphs for G2, you're golden!

  • k really hate you (in a good way lol) kinda jealouse and would love some educated guidance to get these kind of cartooned characters going with all the daz material i bought (have lot of daz 8+ characters and all sorts of other things)

    Lol still poking at it and hope gain some free time so we can chatup 

    thank you

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    I'm currently working on a PDF tutorial of how to achieve these kinds of effects. Including optional stuff like how to do the eye reflections in 3DL if you're using a G8 figure, Geoshell outlines and what not.

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297
    edited October 2021

    For Joy's body shape, I'm trying to find a happy medium between cartoony-curvy and muscular. I don't want her having the kind of Hartman Hips that Eleanor has, but want her to be unmistakably feminine. Also trying to make her semi-feline hears peak out from behind her very poofy hair a bit more.

    Post edited by vrba79 on
  • very nicely done buddy and looking forward to the pdf.. i am trying to use all of gen8 or 8+ characters and products and then to cartoon them like the props etc... i wish to only use photoshop to alter some materials but in the end want to use daz for it all if possibly can and should be able to.

     

    Jay love her but the hair doesnt seem to go for her but thats me aside from that she is sweet and well done texturing her + clothes. I guess most is post work in photoshop which i would want to avoid lol

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Body shape finally how I like it. Enough emphasis on your curves without being too hippy.

     

  • elidaman198elidaman198 Posts: 107
    edited October 2021

    if i can give you two thumbs up and one for her especially i would.. she looks wonderfully :)

    Been looking into a lot of tutorials online and they so wrong and been getting odd results especially afrer render.. plz see attached images my friend

     

    i am hoping that it renders as it appears but yet...

    Post edited by elidaman198 on
  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    VSS isn't my wheelhouse 3DOutlaw and Hyla would be the ones to talk to about that particular shader. Hyla cranked out an AMAZING render with it after not much time with it.

  • elidaman198 said:

    if i can give you two thumbs up and one for her especially i would.. she looks wonderfully :)

    Been looking into a lot of tutorials online and they so wrong and been getting odd results especially afrer render.. plz see attached images my friend

     

    i am hoping that it renders as it appears but yet...

    Please don't post nude images.

    In Render Settings, set the engine to Viewport (Edit or Advanced tabs).

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    Finished version of Joy with tweaks the the lighting, geometry shell outlines added and two-step postwork in Photoshop.

    Being able to use Aiko 4's DNA in the character's design really help make her feel "right" to me, as every iteration of her in the comic has used Aiko 4 in some form or another. Be it as a G1 or G2 morph.

     

  • Richard Haseltine said:

    elidaman198 said:

    if i can give you two thumbs up and one for her especially i would.. she looks wonderfully :)

    Been looking into a lot of tutorials online and they so wrong and been getting odd results especially afrer render.. plz see attached images my friend

     

    i am hoping that it renders as it appears but yet...

    Please don't post nude images.

    In Render Settings, set the engine to Viewport (Edit or Advanced tabs).

    THANK YOU again my friend and hope you realize that i aint doing it intentionally. Much appreciate your support my friend and patience.

  • elidaman198elidaman198 Posts: 107
    edited October 2021

    is that considered to have rendered the image based to what shown in viewport i know its silly question... or just displays the image as shown in viewport without any rendering

    Post edited by elidaman198 on
  • There aren't any rules, in general, so as long as it does what you want that's all that matters. If you were entering a contest or challenge that required a particular render type then it wouldn't work, but otherwise you are free to do what you want to produce the end result.

  • Richard Haseltine said:

    There aren't any rules, in general, so as long as it does what you want that's all that matters. If you were entering a contest or challenge that required a particular render type then it wouldn't work, but otherwise you are free to do what you want to produce the end result.

    agreed my friend though i find the quality to be as good as if having it rendered (my opinion) as it shows in cartoon form the toons well and it actually looks nice :)

    Thanks again.

     

    One question: How do i make the outline of a character more strong so.. lets say your skin is pink or the dress red.. how i make their borders black and thicker from shadow or toon texture?

    thanks again

  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297
    edited October 2021

    VSS, which looks like what you were using, comes with documentation that talks about outline depth. I haven't put any real time into learning that shader yet. I own it, but the render time is a real turnoff for me.

    Post edited by vrba79 on
  • vrba79vrba79 Posts: 1,297

    This one has a bit of a sob story attached to it. I was going through some of my characters when I stumbled upon old Dr. Sinister.

    He was going to be my second attempt at doing a YouTube Horror Host show. The schtick was gonna basically be "Count Floyd" but played straight, and the presentation was going to be a voiced-overed motion comic, made to look like the old 1950s horror comics. Not too long after I made the character a very dear friend passed away in late July, and that pretty much killed my interest in taking it any further. Can't bring myself to delete the character file though.

  • vrba79 said:

    This one has a bit of a sob story attached to it. I was going through some of my characters when I stumbled upon old Dr. Sinister.

    He was going to be my second attempt at doing a YouTube Horror Host show. The schtick was gonna basically be "Count Floyd" but played straight, and the presentation was going to be a voiced-overed motion comic, made to look like the old 1950s horror comics. Not too long after I made the character a very dear friend passed away in late July, and that pretty much killed my interest in taking it any further. Can't bring myself to delete the character file though.

    so sorry on the loss of your friend...its always so painful as time is dear and do what you love most...Hope can send me link on how to make an outline . Be well and continue the amazing art you do

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